Since we're about at the end of her/our four year Providence adventure, I couldn't help but be flooded with memories of the beginning of said adventure - when Claire and I first set foot in the city and started looking at the school. She walked into the RISD Nature Lab and exclaimed, "Did they do this just for me?" She had found her home.
We went back there to see Kate and Andrew who were working there (and because we love it almost as much as Claire does). They showed us an adorable baby snake, horrifying beetles, albino frogs, sweet turtles, and one ornery chameleon named Prince Oprah. Kate held out a mealworm with her long tweezers and Prince O snapped it up with his extra long tongue.
While Rob bonded with the bear, and I with the chameleon, Emily bonded with the snake.
And apparently Kate and Andrew had bonded with each other, as was evidenced by this sign (which is supposed to tell students where the "monitors" - i.e. lab workers - are at the moment.)
One of our favorite parts of visiting colleges is getting to sit in on classes. In a stroke of wonderful timing, we were able to sit in on a "character creation" class taught by Shanth Enjeti. The assignment was to create two characters - a protagonist and an antagonist. They posted their designs on the wall and Shanth explained what worked and what didn't work. Before he started, we looked at all the work and loved every bit. After hearing Shanth, we had to agree with his assessment. Claire's protagonist was a baby orca in a parka and the antagonist was a tall somewhat menacing-looking seal.
Later we went to a party on the top of one of the older buildings in town. It had been converted into loft apartments, but the top was a garden and wonderful view. We all were ready to hand over the first month's rent to reserve a space.
The party was for a collaboration between a local production company, StoryHat, and the RISD illustration department. Twelve students were chosen to brainstorm and develop characters for an animated movie. Claire had signed a non-disclosure agreement so she couldn't tell us anything about the project. But at the party, the founder of StoryHat (below) told us that one of Claire's drawings was currently in a presentation to Dreamworks, which felt remarkably satisfying and, as Rob calls it, "circle of life-ish." (On a side note, Rob met another man from StoryHat, Michael Corrente, who directed five movies shot by our good friend, Richard Crudo. Small world.)
Andrew, Kate, and Em make a Claire sandwich.
Below (in his perpetual orange sweatshirt) is another of her favorite professors, Nick Jainschigg. (His website makes strangely intriguing sounds.) I love his A-Painting-A-Day idea and had previously bought one of his pear paintings. Nick was the one who had to buy two sets of Claire's tiles on CafePress. When asked why two he said, "What if I break one?" Click here for a link to the tiles. (Good news is that she's currently selling them at her cost. But please note that they're a little on the PG-13 side...)
Next stop, Andrew's dorm room where he showed us his short film, Working Stiffs, which is a mockumentary about zombies. Then he showed us a photo of a zombie that he created. Turns out the zombie was Claire. None of us recognized her. Below, he's showing how he made a silicone mold of her everyday ear so he could make her a set of pointy-droopy zombie ears.
And below is normal Claire beside the image of pointy-droopy-eared zombie Claire. (Click on zombie Claire image to enlarge to scary proportions.) I vastly prefer normal Claire.
The last day of the trip was Mothers' Day. In Providence with daughters and Rob. Perfection.
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